Here is the deal Palin: You fuck with Murphy Brown, Your Fucking with me.

As a youth, I was forcd to go to bed at 8;30. A time restraint that made everything in a later hour of TV seem fascinating. I knew that Johnny Carson’s final monologue included a joke connecting then VP Dan Quayle to my mother’s favorite show, Murphy brown, but that was just because the CBS evening news included a a clip of said joke. I had to turn 12 to stay up late enough to witness Murphy Brown, the outspoken liberal feminist that embodied the Clinton era as well as the flaws that accompany my Irish DNA (I mean she was a recovering alcoholic.)


So Sarah Palin, when you speak ill of Murphy Brown, 18 years after the fact of her out of wedlock pregnancy, that sticks in my craw. Let it be known, when you fuck with Murphy Brown, in turn, your are additionally fucking with me.
It has long been known that Sarah Palin’s faux down home folksiness has been in danger of wooing a highly susceptible sector of the populous to the ballots. I’m sure they could be easily sidetracked if kool aid stands were set up outside of voting stations. For two years (and some change) I just assumed Sarah Palin would go away. 16 Years ago Kato Kaelin was a national voice, these things come and go.
Problem is, we liberals are pussies. We don’t get up in arms when we realize the person offending us is dumber than the snow machine they take t work.

That was until you fucked with Murphy Borwn. Palin.Now you have my ire.
Let it be clear, Im a staunch gun control advocate. I wont start wearing a pistol to town hall meetings as a means of intimidation. But now that you have denounced Candace Burgin’s finest creation (although I do like Carnal Knowledge) I will make it my call in life to rally my fellow pussy liberals to actually speak up and ensure the the angry idiots don’t get their way in 2 years. Just as my olde rborther wrote a letter to Regan, informing him he would be out the door in 84, I beg of all liberals to speak up for themselves in 2012.
But I get away from the point. How dare you speak ill of Myurphy Brown, do you know what she’s been through? Upon returning from the Betty Ford Clinic, she took it upon herself to defend truthfulll journalism, despite network censors who could not swallow her connection to 60’s radicalism and I think she might have talked about her vigina once.
Look, I wont pretend I have watched an episode of Murphy Brown in 15 years. Jon Stewart took over the daily Show shortly after MB went off the air, so the mantle of network leralism was carried on from there. But if sarah Palin, who didn’t have the decency t lend her daughter a rubber, wants to criticize the fictional embodiment of 90’s progressives, I am just going to have to blog the shit out of this.

Thanks to AMC for replaying the Death Wish series into oblivion for the past few months. I now have insight into the conservative mindset that their fantasy is to arm up and kill the people they view as harming society. Lierbals don’t think like this. Our fantasies involve gradual change toward public policy we approve of. I regularly jerk off to the idea of ration heath care legislation. What’s hotter than that?

So I now elect to get angry. Now that the mascot of the new (but really the same) conservative movement has dissed Murphy Brown, my life goal will be to get angry for at least 60 minutes a day toward the ways that the corporate party are fucking up where I live.
I know blogging is an impotent form of rage, but what else do I have? Liberals don’t tend to get things done.
Also, remember how Murhy Brown loved Motown soul? That was a nice touch.

Does Michal Scott have Aspergers?

Oh, The Office. Six years ago, a remake of the BBC series sounded like an idea only a witless network executive could love. But then, well shucks, you just went and became great and all. So, now we face the final Michael Scott centered season of the series, which, at its' best, balanced some very broad humor with an awareness of real world economics and an attention to gradually building on character details that could almost be called novelistic. And Michael did Pam's mom cause he didn't know she was old, pfff.

My favorite thing about the Michael Scott character is how the show parcels out clues to how he evolved the middle aged emotional train wreck that runs the Scranton Branch of Dunder Miflin. The show has always alluded to certain emotional needs that were not met in Scott's early life and pulled of a real neat trick in making a character who spews nuance but is blind to the nuccey spew that's always right in front of him. The Office even took advantage of Scott's embasility by making it the very reason he's had success as a salesman: Scott fetishizes the family life he never had and uses that value to appeal to customers.

It's probably for the best that Carell is moving on after this year. While I could watch this character forever, it really is cruel after a certain point to keep gawking (affectionaletly) at this poor soul who could never realistically gain the self awareness they need to help myself.
The office has consistently refused to jump the shark to the point that it's last season was really unsure where to step. I admire this because even though Michael Scott would need some serious emotional growth to remain compelling in the long term, we know him to well now to believe that he is capable of that. This leads me to wonder, DOES MICHAEL SCOTT HAVE ASPERGERS SYNDROME? It was this clip that made me reconsider whether Michael Scott's flaws are solely the product of a lack of love in his childhood.

It's the detail at the end where Carell says that as a 5 year old he couldn't even talk. I don't pretend to have a depth of knowledge on the condition, but delayed speech development is certainly a sign.
You could just write off the comment as Michael's memory being spotty or using hyperbole, but wouldn't Carell's final year be amazing if the show really got to the bottom of MS's dysfunction? I'm amazed that the show has never jumped the shark in introducing Michael Scott's mother, if this something the show will draw from it's arsenal to truly confront his long gestating demons?
I'm sure that Carell will end his run with his character finding some sort of lasting happiness, fitting for a series about why we go on living through insipidity for the minor payoffs at days end. But the show has gone to ( and peaked at) some serious Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf areas before, wont the pay off be greater if the show regrows its teeth and says "Hey! Michael Scott has Aspergers, his mom just said so!"

And apparently Harvey Kietel is going to be the new regrional manager of the Scranton branch, so lets steel ourselves.

A mission statement: Know Mumblecore

Most of the country will spend the next twelve days or so preoccupied with the outcome of the Saints/Colts Superbowl. I can see how this is an especially important event since a Saints victory would be the comeuppance of the post-Katrina New Orleans ( and by extension all the world's downtrodden) while the Colts are just some other team.
But really, I am and always will be indifferent to major sports franchises, a disposition the frees me up to focus on the really important questions in life. Specifically, what will be the major quirk-fest comedy to get picked up at Sundance this week?
If this seems trivial to you, please note that Sundance comes reasonably close to being an anagram for Sudanese, another oppressed people.

My bet is that the Duplass Brother's junior effort Cyrus will the little indie that could of 2010. Just look at the trailer, it's like their two previous films The Puffy Chair and Baghead, but with actors you know.



And if anyone wants to get up in my grill like "Hey Bro, that looks for like Happy, Texas '97 than Little Miss Sunshine '06." Then just back off, because I don't particularly like The Duplass Brother's previous films, but I do think that if this one is to hit, it is very important that I become the web's foremost authority on the sub, sub-genre the Brother's work in: Mumblecore.

Mumblecore includes, at most, 4 or 5 movies you have heard of, so if it seems a bit early for the genre to have a name, it's probably because it was coined by Eric Masunaga, the sound editor on some early MC outings such as Funny Ha Ha, and Mutual Appreciation. Once you've seen a film of this genre, it isn't hard to recognize it's main attributes (free floating camera, quasi improvised dialogue, etc.) probably because they are strikingly similar aesthetically to those of any Dogme 95 film. The main difference is the emphasis on inarticulate college graduates approaching their thirties. In fact, since the genre is so limited in terms of actual titles, it is probably easier to recognize by the overlap of talent involved.
So lets call this a rambling mission statement. In the coming weeks I will view as many of these Mumblecore pictures to see if there is any place for this genre to go, you know, besides putting John C Reilly in them, which will no doubt be a great move, for now.
For Saturday: A review if 2009's well received Humpday. Directed by Liz Shelton, starring Mark Duplass and one of the guys from the Blair witch Project, which may or may not be Mumblecore.